balanced and the internet. >> this week, on the communicators, technology talks about his book. curse ofabout the bigness. they got large and only cared about money and growth and didn't take their position responsibly and ended up being hacked. they had this terrible effect on what passes as news. the social affect and political effect of facebook are enormous. >> tonight at eight got eastern on c-span two. -- at 8:00 c-span2. >> it roundtable on the week in of the daily beast and wall street journal reporter vivian salama. later, charles jeszeck from the

government accountability office on a report looking at how well americans are saving for retirement. as always, we take your calls i knew can join the conversation at facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: good morning. it is monday, april 8, 2019. the house is in at noon eastern and the senate reconvenes at 4:00 p.m. we will be next -- with you for the next 4 hours. we begin with kiersten nielsen's resignation from her cabinet post on sunday. it comes just days after she joined the president to a trip to the mexican border on friday. we are getting your reaction and we want to hear what you inc. about the latest departure from the president's cabinet. republicans can call at 202-748-8001.

democrats, 202-748-8000. .ndependents, 202-748-8002 you can catch up with ahsan social media. on twitter it is -- catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. here is the headline from the new york times calling the resignation an abrupt resignation. the new york times reporting partnielsen had -- in thinking she could have a conversation with mr. trump about the role according to three people familiar with the meeting, she came prepared with a list of things that needed to improve the relationship with the president. asylum-seekers -- ineffective and inappropriate. while the 30 minute meeting was cordial, mr. trump was determined to ask for her resignation.

president trump announcing that resignation after 6:00 on his twitter feed yesterday evening. president trump saying kirstjen nielsen will be leaving her position. the current u.s. customs and protection commissioner will become acting secretary. that was the president on twitter last night. this is kirstjen nielsen's resignation letter saying despite our progress in reforming homeland security for a new age, i have determined it is the right time for me to step aside. i hope the next secretary will have the support of congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure america's borders. our country and the men and women of dhs deserve to have all the tools and resources they need to execute the mission entrusted to them.

i can say our homeland is safer today than when i joined the administration. secretary nielsen adding yesterday evening on her twitter feed after 10:30 that she agreed to stay on through wednesday of this week to assist with an orderly transition and ensure key dhs missions are not impacted. getting your reaction to that news of that departure. a phone lines as usual. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. we will make sure to check our social media feeds as well. teresa is next on the phones from dandridge, tennessee. a republican, good morning. caller: good morning. ism glad kristen nielsen leaving. she was never up for the job. it is not always true that a woman can be a better job than a man. it needs to be a man in that

position to take on the strong arm of taking care of our border. she could not handle the senate hearings, she buckled, she just wasn't right for the job. host: you think it was because she was a woman? caller: i think it has a lot to do with it. she put her feelings in front of her job. host: what is an example of that? i don't believe donald trump is caging children like they are wanting to believe. so she put that ahead of her feelings on closing the border. he did no different than obama did, she just let everybody get to her and all the media attacking her and they need a man. they need a man in there instead of a woman. host: this is dan in new york, a

democrat. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. i say good riddance to her and the next one that needs to go is trump himself. i voted for this guy to keep hillary out of that office and for him to do what he said he was going to do. last week i turned on the drudge report, the tv set and i see these people running all over the place coming across this border by the thousands. there was a report on the front page that says in 112 day period, 17,000 people came across the border. do you realize what that is doing to our country? i don't care if you call me a racist or anything else, i have had enough of trump and his bs. he needs to go. he is a liar, he is a fraud, and he has done nothing. did he lock her up? no, he put his clown on the supreme court. he is making his friends rich, but has done nothing to help us.

and c-span, i think you can do a hell of a lot better job reporting on this. take your cameras to the border. go to the middle of this country and ask people what they are doing. have they called their congressmen, their senators to hold their feet to the fire? no. nobody does anything but call the radio stations and complain. nobody will get their feet on the ground and do what they need to do. host: we have been to the border on this program. we did an entire three hours, two different days. 6 hours total, interviewing people on the border and in texas. if you want to go back and watch that series, you can go to our website and click on "series," and take a look at some of the interviews we did from down in texas. you were talking about apprehensions and border crossings, some stats on that

from today's washington post talking about nielsen's resignation. nearly 100,000 arrests compared to 58,000 in january according to the dhs. much of that is attributed to ventral american families seeking asylum. you can see the picture in that article, secretary nielsen with president trump at a cabinet .eeting in january ed in georgia, republican. you are up next. caller: good morning. i think trump wants to replace her because she is tough, but not tough enough and he wants to get somebody else in there that is tougher. i wanted to also point out another thing to the democrats. especially the black democrats. you cannot get reparations. if you read the law, reparations

are only for people that are alive. all the slaves are dead. there is no reparations. it democrats are leading you to believe they can get you reparations. if you get an expert on c-span to prove it, reparations are not possible. you have to be alive to get reparations. host: we will hold off on the reparations discussion. having a discussion 12 hours after the announcement yesterday by president trump that secretary nielsen will be stepping down as her position -- from her position as secretary of homeland security. phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. in a georgia, republican, you are next. caller: hello, how are you this morning? host: i am doing well, sir caller: my comment is this. our legislative system needs to .wn the problems we have

when nielsen was in front of haveess and they said they all these cages she should have said, you are right, we do. handle the problems we have on the board of. instead, everybody wants to get into the problem. why doesn't everybody think about the solution of how to fix it? thank you. what do you think the solution should be? caller: it is complicated because you have all these rights,all these human american citizens who live in this country tired of paying out the gang for everyone else when we have our own problems growing up, i used to hear this old saying that if you sweep around -- sweep around your own doorstep before you sweep around your neighbor's. host: tom in ohio, democrat.

go ahead. had twothe republicans years where they had complete control where they could get comprehensive immigration reform any way they wanted to do it. i think they should go after the companies that hire these people . company, they get permission to bring people in. do they keep them after their visas expire? and if they do, why aren't they going after the companies? if they get the companies that hire these people, they would not have any reason to come in. they don't want to do that, they want the cheap labor and they this big show on tv and

everything else to get people mad so they will vote republican. ohio.that is tom in a few comments on social media. on facebook, this is dale saying president trump will replace her with someone more terrible. murray saying thank you for your service, it is a hard job. the turnover into trump administration, worse than a -- worse than mcdonald's, but he only hires the best. julieta saying i cannot wait for president trump to be replaced by someone who has morals. at least in the immediate term, president trump announced kevin mack alina -- the commissioner of customs and border protection will take over as the acting secretary of dhs. by law, the undersecretary for management, clear grady, serving

as acting deputy secretary is in line to be the acting secretary. the white house will have to fire her to make kevin mcaleenan the acting secretary. we will continue to follow that story and what happens there. in terms of background on mr. up for thehe signed aftermath in the after -- went to work for customs and border protection in the early years of the bush administration and rose to be deputy commissioner at cbp under president obama and was acting director for the first 14 months of the trump administration before winning a confirmation to the job march of 2018. he was confirmed by a 77-19 vote while at cbp. force been a strong

describing the border crisis although his last combative approach than former ice acting ms.rman tom homan or nielsen. getting your reaction on phone lines for republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. isaiah in georgia, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to make a comment and thenrevious caller i will ask the question. hello? host: what is your comment and what is your thoughts on secretary nielsen stepping down? feelr: secretary nielsen i like, you know what i am saying, she locked the kids in the concentration camps and that is what she will be known for. her stepping down, somebody is coming in. i have a response to one of your early callers.

hello? host: okay, is it on this topic? caller: yeah. host: go ahead. caller: he was saying something about the black people should they can't get anything because you have got to be alive. my question is to him, who are master ton of a slave tell the former slaves what they can and cannot get? can you imagine right now, today, a german telling a jew that? can you imagine that? host: we will hold off on a reparations debate and stick to the discussion about the secretary of homeland security resigning yesterday. he came around 6:00. getting your thoughts, your reaction. bruce in florida. line for democrats, you are next. caller: good morning.

this is just another example of the total lack of respect donald trump has for any of the cabinet positions he is obligated to fill. he was never equipped for this position. i don't know what her previous experience is until she got in this position because i had never heard of her. every time she spoke on the subject of immigration, she was always ill-informed and usually wrong. her response to the kids being separated and all that was wrong. it is just another example of the lack of respect donald trump has for the country and the government. these cabinet positions, these are important positions and he puts anybody he thinks looks good to him at the time, i don't know. one of the previous callers that bed companies need to arrested or charged for hiring illegal immigrants, do you think

these companies know these people are illegal? when they come with a social security card and address and everything to be employed is legitimate. it is not the employer's fault for hiring these people, it is the people who are american citizens that refused to get the jobs these employers need people for. there are more people called illegal immigrants willing to work in this country than american citizens are willing to work in this country. host: when you say she wasn't equipped for the job, what does the next secretary of the department of homeland security need to be equipped with? what qualities would you look for? caller: human compassion for one thing. ms. nielsen,ious, her response to anything about immigrants crossing the border was the law. if you cannot follow the law, then you need to be locked up. everybody who says the word law

in that tone of voice has shown they are a despicable human being. the law does not supersede human rights. this is supposed to be america. i am glad she is gone. i really am. i am tired of hearing her voice on tv. host: when you talk about not knowing her background, here is some information. she is the first secretary with experience in the department of homeland security having served in the bush years. to formertop aide chief of staff and former homeland security secretary john kelly and joined him when he took over the department and came to the white house to serve as his chief of staff when he moved to the white house and was nominated for that position at the department of homeland security. want to take our viewers back to december 8 of 2017. it was at secretary nielsen's

swearing in ceremony president trump dropped in, made some comments, and praised secretary nielsen ahead of her official swearing in. here is that moment. [video clip] >> i just want to congratulate you, it is such an important day for our country. the numbers have been so .ncredible, up to 78% they used to have a 1% or 2% number. we are at 78%. i -- it went down a little bit because a lot of people are trying to come in so much because it is not easy. we are going to get the wall, i know you want the wall. we need it. we need it for the drug flow, people coming into our country. we want great people coming into our country. we want to have a merit-based system. we want to get rid of chain

migration. we have to toughen up the borders even more. we have to toughen air travel, too. lots of people fly in or come in through other means. to congratulate you and i wanted to be here for the big moment. thank you. months later, secretary nielsen departing the department of homeland security. we are talking about your reaction and showing reaction from around capitol hill. here is some of it via twitter. this is chuck schumer tweeting when even the most radical voices in the administration aren't radical enough or president trump, you know he has completely lost touch with the american people. republican from west virginia thanking secretary nielsen for her leadership and dedicated public service to dhs. she was an excellent partner in

supporting the department's critical work. putting out his statement and nancy pelosi putting out her statement as well. thetjen nielsen oversaw mentation of the trump administration's increasingly toxic anti-immigration policies that she reportedly is resigning because she is not extreme enough to the white house's liking is deeply alarming. want to hear from you this morning, most importantly getting your reaction. jenny in north carolina, a democrat, good morning. jenny, are you there? you have to stick by your phone. eric is next and floated, independent. good morning -- is next in florida, independent. good morning. your thoughts, go ahead. people he hires these

and he wants them to do things that is against the law. then when they do not do it, he wants their resignation. i think this is so crazy and ludicrous to our government and then number two, these people that come across the border, all they want to do is live a better life, but we have companies in these countries that don't help , you know whate i am saying? they don't give nothing back to their people and those people come to the united states for a better life and i just feel donald trump, he don't understand what is really going on in the world, you know what i am saying? it is only basically what he thinks how it should be. that is my take on it. host: bridget is next, fairfield, iowa. good morning. caller: good morning.

i want to give honor to ms. nielsen. she has done a great job. i have watched all her oversight committees you have placed that she has been on c-span. if you watch of the things she says, she is not going against the law, she is trying to enforce the law. i give this lady credit. i don't know any other woman in this country that could have stood there and taken the verbal abuse not understanding the situation like she did. she is a patriot. i love her and i am going to miss her and god bless america. in texas,ifer is next democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. my comment is why have we not called these caravans or whatever -- why haven't we called them refugees? because they are leaving

horrible situations where their lives are in danger. why do we not call them refugees? isn't that what they are? host: a story on what is happening at the border and some of those seeking asylum at the border from today's washington times, a federal judge ordered the federal government to either quickly bring the asylum-seekers to a judge to argue bail or release the migrants out right in a ruling that deals another blow to president trump's attempt to crack down on the ,order crisis . a judge said the government cannot hold them longer than seven days without the right to a bond hearing. -- lose asylum cases should be detained while awaiting their outcome.

some information on the judge, sits on the federal court in washington state and part of the u.s. court of appeals for the ninth circuit court that has so irked president trump. ray is next, independent. go ahead. caller: good morning. i am kind of upset the way they treated her. separatingk about children. obama separated children and nobody said a word. nobody blames the parents bringing these kids over here. for 50 years we have been hearing the same thing, violence, cartels. it is not our job to fix those countries. host: you said she was treated unfairly by the senate. do you think she was given a fair chance by the president? caller: yes. she can only do what the law allows her to do.

she was looking to do a job, that is it. host: maggie with the new york times dug into the president's relationship with his homeland security secretary over the course of her career. she writes this morning that secretary nielsen's entire time in the job was spent battling back suspicion from the president even as he told people he liked how she performed on television and enjoyed her time personally. because she was close to john 'slly, mr. trump guest 2: former chief of staff. to the president called miss nielsen early at home to demand she take action to stop migrants from entering the country, including doing things that were clearly illegal. she repeatedly noted the limitations imposed on her

department by federal laws, court settlements, and international obligations. those responses only infuriated mr. trump. ms. nielsen hesitated about whether to sign a memo ordering the routine separation of migrant children from their parents. to draft a resignation letter and tell colleagues there was no reason for her to leave the department anymore. she had reconsidered and remained in her position, but coming and increasingly fierce supporter of president trump's policies, including family separations. independent.gia, good morning. caller: how are you, good morning? host: good morning morning. go ahead. caller: just to echo what the gentleman said earlier about the president asking people to enforce law -- and force against

the law, our asylum laws are based on an international treaty on refugees that were party to -- we are party to. treaty becomes law of the land. don'tr problem is people -- our problem is people don't remember the history of the 1980's. the triangle states, el salvador, honduras, and guatemala. we supported wars against the indigenous people. think of elliott abrams, who was convicted in iran-contra and william barr advised george h. him along withon oliver north and john poindexter who sold missiles to our enemy,

iran, in order to go around congress to fund a war in nicaragua against of the dictatorship we had placed in 50 for the advantage of the united fruit company and banking.thers we destabilized these countries in the 1980's and they have not recovered since. we still have a military presence in honduras. in of this destabilization the triangle countries in central america is the result of american policy over the last 50 years. now we are pretending it is their fault. this is the way america seems to behave under republican administrations. look at what is going on with

the palestinians and israelis now. trying tois are discredit a movement in america of u.s. citizens because they want us to support them in foreclosing the possibility of the palestinian state. this is all connected, people have to understand this. thank you very much for allowing me this much time. host: anthony in miller place, new york, a democrat. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. thank you for the opportunity. susan.brian lamb and i know they are behind the scenes, but i enjoyed conversations with them. there was something about their moderation and delivery that you felt comfort with. the new crop of moderators are outstanding and i am grateful to have you folks because there is nothing like c-span. anthony.reciate that,

's your thoughts on secretary nielsen departure. caller: yes, yes, one of your callers talked about referring to them as refugees in -- as opposed to caravans. i think there is a lot of doublespeak and i think we should revisit george orwell's prophecy. i think we are out of control. pbs had a wonderful program on the other night and i cannot think of the name or what it was on, but it was about the first photograph that the men that walked on the moon -- they went around the planet and .hotographed earth from space the maker of the film, the documentary gave a wonderful segment where he spoke about -- it was a great uniting time for humans on planet earth because it allowed us all to see ourselves as one unit on this people'sne desperate

that need to come together and understand we are all one and we need to love one another and .top all this nonsense i believe the united states being a global power and a bully in some sense. the last caller you had was quite articulate in chapter and verse as far as the united activities.ous i think homeland security is just another redundancy of bloated government. you've got cia, fbi, police, so many bureaucratic institutions that are set up to protect us, but they really are turning on humankind and i don't think they can fix any of the problems they claim they can. c-span, you guys are articulate and brilliant. i would hope you can bring to the forefront the patriot acts 1

and 2, 911. had 9/11 not occurred, would we be able to do all the things we are able to do as far as spying on america? host: getting your thoughts, your comments on the phone, twitter, facebook. here are some tweets. nielsen,tes i liked but we need somebody willing to take the hard stances. you must be tough to stand against the political nonsense that is opposite of common sense solutions. several more tweets coming in, we will keep looking for your tweets this morning including from rod rogers who wrote it always seemed as though she was struggling to keep up with events, a nice lady who tried hard, but it is a tough job. rebecca tweeting they are all temporary until they are fired. mr. mulvaney did not even want the title of chief of staff, he insisted on temporary chief of staff. delves intoon post

cabinet positions that do not have a permanent secretary at the moment. nielsen's departure puts that cabinet position into an acting position until the nomination and confirmation of another dhs secretary. president trump as interim secretaries at the department of defense, interior, homeland security, and the office of management and budget. as the viewer on twitter noted, mick mulvaney serves in that role on an acting basis. some reporting that mick mulvaney also perhaps attended in part or whole that meeting yesterday where president trump met with secretary nielsen and the resignation happened at the end of that meeting. mick mulvaney was on fox news sunday yesterday.

he was not talking about resignation, but he was talking about the crisis at the border. [video clip] >> the situation on the border is a crisis. we have been talking about that for three or four months. very few people believed this at the outset. i think more people are accepting the fact it is a real crisis. it is his number one priority and when he says mexico, if you don't help us, we have no choice , mexico pays attention. >> he also threatened to cut off aid to central american countries. >> dealing with health care and the environment is nice to -- the economy is nice, his first priority is to defend the nation . most folks are starting to agree that the situation on the border is a national security crisis. host: just a few hours after

that, secretary nielsen meeting with president trump, resigning from her post. she will stay on through wednesday. to give you a sense of the size of the agency, it has a budget .f $140 billion a year it was created after the september 11 terrorist attacks, responsible for everything from protecting the nation from cyber attacks to responding to natural disasters. youngesten was the person to lead that department and if you want to read more, it is the lead story in most major u.s. papers. we are talking about it in the first hour of the washington journal. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. jane in cincinnati, ohio. republican. caller: good morning to you and everybody out there. i have been listening and

listening to everything the democrats are saying about our president. i don't appreciate it one bit, not a bit. we should all be lucky we have him. to me, he is the greatest president we have ever had and he is the greatest president we will all have. host: what did you think about nielsen?kirstjen caller: i trust trump, i really do. if he feels like he should do that, he should do that. everybody has something better to say. i did not butt in on obama or any other president. i don't think it is nice for everybody else to crucify trump the way he has been crucified -- put himreaten him fire him.d

all that goofy stuff. host: are you concerned at all of the turnover rates of the people in president trump's cabinet? secretary nielsen's resignation coming after john kelly stepped down in september. jim mattis also resigned in december amid a split with president trump. does that concern you at all? caller: not one bit. no, it doesn't. as a matter of fact, as far as one guy that he elected -- i can't think of what -- you know what murray is, that's what he was. the very day he elected him, the

-- they, jeff something us. next day, he dropped what do you think of that? you know. host: that is jane in ohio. this is anna in philly. caller: i think she has been treated very unfairly. ourwas trying to enforce law. that the fact congress and the president could actually do something today to stop the -- -- givesse people one-month to go out of this country who have been here

illegally and after that, go to all the factories. i think god -- is an open war they want canada, the united states, and mexico to be one economic entity and i think it will come to a revolution of the american citizens and i think we can win ins if we believe any cup -- each other and god. host: what do you think about the president's trade agreement he negotiated? usmca as it is being called. i think we lost anna. texas.in san antonio, good morning. caller: good morning. i am listening to some of these people calling in and i never heard a country that was so

divided. this lady, she is going to be vilified for the things she has done and people need to understand. she was doing these things from the order of the president. she cannot break the law for him . i listen to a lot of these people calling in. i truly believe they want a dictatorship in this country anduse they can say things they are entitled to their opinion, but these people don't understand facts whatsoever. this woman, i truly believe she did not want to do some of the things she had done. you take all kind of heat from people calling in. you don't want to go through this, but it is a job. in -- hear people calling

where were they when the republicans were in power? they had the house, the senate, and the white house. they did not do nothing, but they wants to blame the democrats now. i am a democrat. there is a lot of things they do i don't like. host: what is something democrats do you don't like? caller: right now with this socialism crap. republicansing the something to defeat them. this, why arefree you going to pay for all of this and when democrats are going to wake up and say when are we going to get the money --where are we going to get the money from? host: is there someone running on the campaign trail for 2020 that is speaking to you? to your issues? now, out oft

indiana, i believe. i like him. going to win the nomination, but i likes him. ocasio. like i tell people, you come in too fired up. how are you going to pay for this? explain to me how you are going to pay for it? host: that is donald in texas. speaking of democrats running in 2020, the new york times with a wrap up of where the democrats visited around the country over the course of the past month. 115 cities in 20 states. the results reveal the often opposing imperatives of running for president in 2020 fundraising where the wealthiest democrats live, chiefly in california and new york first visiting the crucial early primary states, casting votes in

congress first introducing themselves to voters beyond the usual stomping grounds. as ever, iowa the first state to vote remains the political and -- the candidates visited no fewer than 20 states over the course of march as the geography of running for president has widened. if you look at various maps, they chart the course of various candidates as well. beto o'rourke, the former congressman joined the contest in mid-march and raced through his first 10 plus days including a 5k race in iowa which he --ished at 24 minutes .25 24.29. key rust belt states democrats lost in 2016 and ended the month with three kickoff rallies in texas, visiting 42 cities over the course of the month.

the new york times tracking cory gillibrand,sten kamala harris, beto o'rourke, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders. you can see the maps on your screen. about 15 minutes left as we have this conversation about homeland security secretary crist -- kirstjen nielsen resigning yesterday. bob in michigan, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. kirstjen nielsen was a rather conservative person and she came into that job i think a little bit less than perfectly knowledgeable about all the functions that homeland security did. as she grew into that job, i actually think by the time she got fired, she was highly knowledgeable about every threat homeland security has and threatsarly the cyber

which she began to figure out. that is one of the problems with donald trump. while the southern border is a major problem, once she became knowledgeable about the laws and the myriad of threats this country had and started acting on it, it was time to get rid of her and put on another hat. host: when you say she began to figure out the cyber threats, what do you mean and what is an example you remember? caller: c-span and this person was super knowledgeable and had the facts down and understand -- understood homeland security is more than just illegal immigration and how to deal with that. became confident in her job, that is time for her to go if you are trump. he needs a hack doing his mindless bidding, unfortunately.

she was just not capable of doing his bidding anymore. host: in terms of who might replace kirstjen nielsen in the long term, we talked about immediately kevin mcaleenan taking that job on an acting basis, but the washington post takes a look at some of the names floating around as a potential permanent replacement. any permanent replacement would need to go through a confirmation hearing and be confirmed by the senate. some of the names, ken cuccinelli, former virginia attorney general has been at the white house recently according to two republicans involved in discussions not authorized to speak publicly. energy secretary rick perry, the former texas governor seen as the most likely to be easily confirmed. kris kobach, prominent immigration hardliner has been floated in the past for the job,

but more likely to be involved in the administration as an advisor. those are three of the names being floated or talked about this morning. maggie have a minute adding on her twitter page cuccinelli is for real as a potential replacement. perry, far left. kobach seen as a possibility in part because of the president's desire to have someone in his mind who projects zero-tolerance in regard to the border and eliminate the problem in the kansas senate race. maggie have her men in the new an,k times -- maggie haberm new york times. caller: early in the program, and oneed some tweets of them i am particularly interested in and i did not have an opportunity to read it, it was not quite long enough for me

to read from senator ron johnson of wisconsin. i have the highest regard for senator johnson and have since long before he was elected because george will had such a fine endorsement of him years ago. i don't always agree with mr. will. would you be so kind as to show that tweet again? the one from nancy pelosi i think you actually read. host: senator ron johnson putting out his statement on twitter, this is what he wrote. as our hearing last week demonstrated, we have a crisis at our southern border. we need steady, informed, and effective leadership to have any hope of fixing our out-of-control border security and immigration problems. caller: thank you very much. is always a very recent gentleman and represent

of of the people. thank you very much. host: where is a time where he showed that? give me an example from following his career. caller: before he was a member of congress, he was a highly successful businessman and conservative, that is why george hill was strong on him a number of years ago before he ran. he might be up for reelection now after a 6 year term. he just seems to be a voice of moderation, albeit conservative. mistaken if i am not that he is chairman of the homeland security in the u.s. senate. he has conducted some public a member of one or more other committees, i believe . he is a very detail

oriented u.s. senator, takes his position seriously and does not just have a knee-jerk reaction to a lot of developments such as i, frankly, believe nancy pelosi does. host: you have a little more time before his last election, appreciate the call this morning. nancy is in tulsa, oklahoma. independent, go ahead. caller: hi. i am really sorry to see her go. i think she was doing a great job. i think it is a horrible job to and, but she was good at it she had a lot of integrity and professional. host: an example of her doing her job, where did you see it? testimonywatched her to congress and she seemed very professional and had a balance

between what she had to do and having compassion for the people . they were horrible to her at that hearing, blaming her personally for things that -- for everything these people had trip, it is the seems like they were blaming her for. she remained controlled and professional -- composed and professional. i was proud of her. host: in terms of people who were less impressed with nielsen, the new york times and washington post digging into those who complained about her work in the past. the new york times writing stephen miller -- privately but regularly complained about ms. nielsen. lou dobbs, one of the president 's favorite sounding boards encouraged president trump's negative views of her handling

of the migrant crisis and from the washington post, they say among those pushing the president to remove nielsen was toldbolton, who reportedly the president he did not think she was the right fit for the job. calls,r more of your about 10 minutes left. republicans, it is 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. .ndependents, 202-748-8002 bonnie in maryland, republican, you are next. caller: yes, yes, what really gets me about trump. i am a thai hard republican until he came in -- die hard republican until he came in. he always talks behind their back and it's always, i barely knew them, i only met them a couple of times and then he claims he is such a big, bad, bully. he does not have the nerve to face anyone and fire them.

he always gets somebody else to do it. to me, it is so sad because all he does is campaign, play golf, and watch tv. host: what about the reporting this morning that the president asked for her resignation after a 30 minute meeting with her yesterday? caller: bud, first, he had to go on tweeter to get her in. he needed a scapegoat because people are saying where are all the children that trump ordered be taken away? butasn't her, it was him, he needed somebody to blame it on. for me, it is really sad at then he listens to lou dobbs, give me a break. he needs to do something besides worry about the money. he is in there making money, that is all he is out for. i hope biden runs because i will

and i will vote for biden. they talk about him touching people, look at trump every time he walks up with someone. he went into the locker room of underage girls changing. where is the outrage about that? it is sad. host: you bring up migrant children. an article on that topic from ,he sun sentinel this morning three members of congress a shelterown to tour for migrant children. , --ie wasserman schultz plan to visit the shelter for unaccompanied alien children. the three who represent parts of florida said they were told over the weekend that they would be denied access. the shelter is run by a private contractor overseen by the u.s.

department of health and human services which announced plans to expand the facility from 2350 beds to 3200. about 2000 children between the ages of 13 and 17 were in the facility. last summer, wasserman schultz and florida state represented of -- bill nelson were denied access to the facility, but eventually allowed to take a tour in the end. virginia is up next. with about five minutes left, wisconsin, democrat. good morning. i am very happy to see nielsen go. she absolutely has been a terrible member of the trump thenistration as bad as leader himself. i think it is sad this administration has ripped

children from their mothers and fathers arms. it is so sad. i just think that alone, without all his other problems, should be enough to oust him from office. thank you. rian, new york, is next. john is a democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to say a couple things. one thing on immigration. a lot of people don't cover this . up here in new york, we have quite a few people who have been up here for years who really never got their citizenship, they are just sort of in the background because a lot of it is financial, very costly and .ime-consuming

they are here and they have been here for years, a lot of them. they are not going to be able to get security or medicare. that is the big story up here in new york. as far as the border, i think a lot of these -- i don't know for sure because i am not down there. a lot of these stories -- seems ofbe more of a distraction what they do not want news to report.ke the mueller host: to keith in palm springs, california, republican. is i don'tproblem think we are being told the truth by the majority of the media we hear from on television . ishink the biggest problem the democrats have gone against

the constitution. the constitution was meaningless to them. they avoided the constitution and without a game plan, it is like having a ship without a rudder. for more money than -- for themselves, they have almost completely destroyed our nation. say you don't trust the media or not telling them to -- not telling them the truth, where do you go for your news? caller: i am trying to believe fox now. i really don't know because the -- from ourple leaders who keep us totally in the dark as to what is really going on. i really don't know what to believe anymore, who to believe.

isseems president trump trying to follow our constitution. is person, and a nation going to be lost without a guide. host: houston texas, a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say it took her long enough to resign because she has been embroiled for a little while. she was in over her head to begin with with and she should e been woman enough to step aside and do the president and the rest of the country a favor. host: when do you think she should have stepped aside? caller: i would say maybe three or four weeks ago when it became obvious that the border situation was going south, no pun intended, but it is a major crisis. we want to react instead of act, when we could go ahead and do what we know we need to do.

host: what is that? caller: to put in place a .easonable policy a lot of us in texas are eating the difficulties and the problems and the costs. host: that was our last caller in this first segment of the washington journal. stick around. dailyt we are joined by briefs -- daily beast congressional reporter sam brodey and wall street journal's vivian salama. later on, the government accountability office's charles jeszeck speaks with us on how americans are doing when it comes to saving for retirement. ♪

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joining us to cover both ends of pennsylvania avenue, we are joined by vivian salama, white house reporter for the wall street journal and sam brodey, congressional reporter for the daily beast. today's wall street journal story is about secretary nielsen's departure as secretary of homeland security. you are traveling with the president and -- you traveled with the president and secretary to california on friday. was there any tip this was coming? vivian: we have been expecting this for months, and yet secretary nielsen was somewhat of a survivor of this administration. she has gone through quite a , managing to win over the presidents confidence -- president's confidence. she was in a good position but i will tell you that in the last couple of days and especially when the president started to

ramp up rhetoric about immigration and trying to close , other sources around town started to reach out to me, saying are you hear any -- hearing anything about her future. i remember reaching out to a source that was close to the secretary and asking what is the status and that person said not this again. that was just a week ago, and then she was with him on the border and everything seemed to be ok but the presidents in -- the president's frustration was definitely an indication that something was wrong. resigning was not the intended purpose of the meeting she went into. vivian: she went to talk about immigration and personnel issues , specifically because of the fallout they withdrawal the nomination of the top candidate secretary washe

blindsided by the president's decision to withdraw him from consideration. she was very frustrated when she went in, but the purpose of the meeting was to talk about personnel and immigration. was possibly an option for her. today a day ofy, reaction on capitol hill. what is the most interesting congressional reaction you have seen? sam: nielsen occupied an interesting place on the hill and obviously democrats made no secret of their feelings about her and policies and went after her very aggressively in hearings. among republicans she had defenders but those aligned with the president shared their frustration -- shared his frustration that they were not doing enough at the border, so notedhnson from wisconsin

in his statement last night about nielsen's resignation, did not mention about her 10 year, did not thank her for her service and we hope that going thatrd we will have a dhs is responsive and handles the situation at the border. majority leader mcconnell thanked her for her service and said he looks forward to confirming the next secretary. that highlighted a little bit of the schism and foreshadows the possibly very bruising confirmation process. host: do we have any sense of timing on that, for the presidents next pick for dhs -- president's next pick for dhs? heian: we are hearing that might not even want the position. it is unclear if he is going to there is anyone.

that was one of the problems going into this where the president had been considering possibly removing kiersten nielsen from her post but there were no deputies in the position. they did not have that structure at dhs where they had potential candidates to take over, and that was one of the things we have been seeing now where even those who are enacting positions right now are not necessarily the long term for these picks for-- long-term these positions. a number of names we are hearing as well, it is too early to tell at this point and with this president, it is usually the last person that catches his ear that ends up winning the nomination. i have learned to never make predictions, but those are definitely serious names being floated. host: a busy start to an already

busy week in washington. phone lines as usual, republicans, (202)-748-8001. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independents, (202)-748-8002. attorney general william barr will be on capitol hill tomorrow . where and why? sam: he will be appearing before senate and house appropriators in charge of the budget for the department of justice. this is the annual event in which cabinet officials come forward to talk about their budgets. i think lawmakers from both sides are going to be interested in a lot more than the dod budget this week when attorney general barr comes up sometime soon this month. he is supposed to release a redacted version of special counsel robert mueller's report. there has been controversy on the hill about the extent of the information in that redacted report. the democrats house judiciary committee chair and focus on

that committee are worried it is going to be heavily redacted and had -- and have information they believe the public should have access to. democrats are going to be asking barr about that process. some of the folks i talked to on the hill are skeptical that bar especially anything, considering a release of some version of this report is coming very soon. the: on that point, what at white house is being said about this hearing? i asked the president when we were at the border on friday if he is going to give the attorney general any guidance ahead of his testimony and he said i don't know and then went into a long speech andt how much he likes barr has confidence he is a good man, so i think the president has not gotten that far and would prefer

him to not stray too far from that document. host: how is the president's relationship with secretary of state mike pompeo? vivian: great. if anyone has done great navigating the unique atmosphere in washington, it has been secretary pompeo. he has not had it easy because he has been handed the north korea portfolio and there are a lot of frustrations on the hill, especially with north korea because lawmakers have not been briefed about the extent to which this administration is engaging with north korea and where those negotiations are going. when secretary pompeo faces his own testimony, his own hearings, he will get questions about what is going on behind the scenes. they have definitely kept it close to their chest. mike sam brodey on pompeo's appearance on capitol hill this week. sam: a stage set or for that is

he appeared in-house last month and faced heat from both democrats and republicans about president trump's proposed cuts to the department of state. democrats believe that in the words of some over there, dereliction of diplomacy and they invoked former secretary jim mattis, where if you spend money -- if you spend less on the state department, he would have to spend more on weapons. rubio,mney, marco preventative of republican foreign policy before trump. they want to see a muscular american presence, not just in the realm of the military and they would like to see the department of state have a bigger budget than the president is proposing. we will see skepticism from republicans and some tough words from democrats. host: a very busy week on capitol hill. remind us where we are in terms

of the president's tax reforms -- tax returns. neal isirman richard requesting not only the president's tax returns from 2013 to 2018 but is also requesting federal income tax returns for the president's personal trusts and businesses including his golf courses. that request has been sent to the irs, setting up a battle that people have been talking about for years, possibly a back and forth between the irs and lawmakers. indicatedmnuchin has he is not exactly excited about this prospect and does not believe he needs to do it. mick mulvaney says this has already been litigated. mick mulvaney going on fox

news on sunday to weigh in on this topic. [video clip] >> they knew they were not going to get these taxes. they know what the law is in one of the fundamental principles of the irs is to protect the confidentiality of you and me and everyone else who files taxes. they know the terms under which the irs can give them the hitch up but political is not one of those reasons. >> to be clear, you believe the democrats will never see the president's tax returns. >> never, and nor should they. that initiative was already litigated during the election. voters knew the president could have given his tax returns. he didn't and they elected him anyway. they just want the attention on the issue because they don't want to talk to us about policy. >> he has argued he is under audit but even under audit, you could allow people. >> you could always allow people to see it, but that is not what

is happening. democrats are demanding the irs turn over the documents and that is not going to happen and they know it. this is a political stunt. ast: vivian salama, never was term used, a strong word in politics. vivian: that is quite a gamble. he would take a more diplomatic approach but he is certainly taking a gamble in backing the president on this and obviously the president has maintained this line of being under audit. i told them where i stand on this issue and if they can't deal with that, that is their problem. salama, a white house reporter with the wall street journal and sam brodey with the daily beast joining us for this week ahead in washington segment. the phone lines are open for what you want to talk about.

john is up from new york city, line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking michael. there is an important deadline which is not only scary but unwise and that is the decision that the trauma administration wants to make. the iran to recognize revolutionary guard as a terrorist group. not to mention the fact that it will further alienate iranians. there is even risk that iranians with declaring the u.s. military as a terrorist organization. your comments please. issue i haveis an

known for a while. it is something i covered closely. this administration made it clear they will continue cracking down on iran. one of the options in their treasure chest is cracking down irgc, declaring it a terrorist organization. they are trying to clamp down on maintain pressure on the regime while letting the people of iran know they are here to support them if they need humanitarian is this just -- humanitarian assistance. this administration is not going to let up on the pressure on iran. source of iran is the much of the destabilization in the middle east, especially syria.

unfortunately, for whatever you want to look at it, that seems to be the course of action at this point. whether or not you agree with it , that is where this administration wants to go. host: sam brodey, how much can we expect congress to weigh in on this? sam: not significantly. there was a lot of foreign policy concerns that will take precedence. when secretary pompeo comes to the hill, north korea was mentioned. international falls, minnesota. brad is a republican. caller: we started out this morning with releasing of the nielsen and we are talking about illegal aliens, so the question , howe for both of them

many sex traffickers and children that don't belong to these illegals coming in should we allow the american people to let in? host: i don't know if you have stats in front of you on border arrests and that sort of thing but how would you respond? vivian: the president has maintained that a number of people in these caravans are either sex offenders or he has used the word rapists at times or other criminal activity. i do not have the stats in front of me but there are a number of people who are innocent and are just fleeing economic turmoil or violence in their country. i understand your position on this and the president certainly agrees. there is a mixed bag and unfortunately without the statistics in front of me, it is hard to comment. host: sam brodey, would you want to comment?

sam: i would not add much more than that. host: our next caller is from kentucky, independent. mentioni heard someone the president's tax returns. that seems to be a question that seems to be a cloud over him and i think it is going to continue to be a cloud over him until he resolves it. innocent as he proclaims to be, why does he keep payment -- throwing a monkeywrench into the process? anormal person, psychologically healthy individual would want the investigation to proceed forward so that the truth could speak for itself, thus exonerating them. he does not do this and there is a reason for that. as far as something else that ,as said about terrorism

another thing we are not talking about here is his policies on eradicating terrorism or he does not have a policy frankly. he talks about making america great again. how do you make america great again when you have domestic terrorism on the rise and what i mean by that is white nationalism. all of these nazi groups. they are on the rise. a congresswoman from minnesota recently just got a death threat and he fans the flames of this. i am not saying he is responsible, but as president he sets the tone. i think on that second point, that is music to the ears of a lot of democrats on capitol hill who are trying to draw attention to the issue of

homegrown extremism here in the united states. the department of homeland security eliminated a unit that was meant to gather intelligence on homegrown domestic terrorists , white nationalists and far right extremists. we will see a hearing on this coming up on the hill, led by democrats, trying to make this a focal point to talk about the spread of violence contact -- content on the internet. i think attorney general barr will be asked about that at the house this week because that is an area of doj jurisdiction. host: on the issue of tax returns, president trump reach a tweetthis morning from c-span about congressman jim jordan of ohio on hours newsmakers program -- on our newsmakers program saying there is no law saying the president's tax returns have to be public.

he said for a while they cannot be made public because they are under audit. can you explain why? essentially the president says he is a very wealthy individual with a lot of businesses and properties and so , aentially for the review routine review of his finances, that is something that everybody goes through and it just so happened he happened to be going through it in 2016 while he was running for election and that audit in 2019 is still underway according to the president. obviously a lot of his critics don't believe that and believe he is trying to conceal whatever may be his -- in his tax returns. host: when the irs is asked about this audit, what do they say? vivian: the irs has not commented.

debatep to -- up for whether or not there is an actual audit and why it has taken so long. a lot of questions and i know a lot of reporters have worked to see if they can -- to see if they can get those tax returns because of the worry of conflicts of interests. is there anything that might be hidden? we want to remind viewers that releasing tax returns was basic protocol for candidates leading up to elections. we have strayed from that and because he has strayed from that, the question of whether any of the candidates for 2020 are going to release tax returns continues to be an issue. host: halfway through our week ahead. if you want to join the discussion, republicans, (202)-748-8001. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independents, (202)-748-8002. vivian salama, you mentioned

reporters working on part of the travel pool following the president on this trip to the southern border. can you explain how the white house travel pool works? vivian: a 19 hour day for the travel pool which is not customary. essentially the travel pool travels with the president. we have about 11 reporters on a standard trip. we will go on air force one with him, travel with his motorcade and essentially our job is to follow the news of the president to ensure he is getting from point a to point b, document any conversations he may be having, , ando ask him questions essentially write about what is happening. he can't take the entire press corps with him. pooler, we print have to relay everything he says to our colleagues.

there are tens of thousands of people i am emailing. host: if they work at other news organizations, they can take your information as if they reported it? vivian: that's correct. the pooler agrees to share everything they are reporting on and that is something we do through the white house correspondents association. this is a long-standing practice. we do a rotation. i was also the pooler when the president met kim jong-un in february and march. the white house present -- prevented a lot of journalists from going to the dinner with kim jong-un. i was the only reporter allowed into the room that day after some tension between the white house. host: when you are on pool duty, do you need to know where the president is?

vivian: it is funny you should ask that. we did not know where we were going on friday night. have still entitled to closed sessions or private sessions. --friday we start of the day we started the day at the border . then we went to los angeles. after that, the president was scheduled to have a fundraiser. we did not know where it was taking place, it was a private residence. we agreed to protect the private -- protect the identity of this person. our next stop was on a helicopter to an unknown destination. it was all very mysterious. it was only thanks to google maps we were able to identify that we were at the president's golf course in los angeles. airlifted onally military helicopters to a place where we had no idea where we were. sometimes that happens as well.

host: on this friday trip, you set some kind of record? vivian: i did apparently. my apologies to the new york times who apparently held the record. does account tweeted that there were 27 pool reports. i hit 29 which apparently breaks the record. host: as you are hearing that on the white house will report, sam brodey, can you give viewers some sense of access you have the congress members? -- have to congress members? access onevel of capitol hill probably makes it one of the most fun places to report in all of washington. lawmakers running around doing their business, going from hearings to votes to press conferences and

customarily, a reporters job on the way is to talk to you. host: is there any place where you cannot ask them a question? sam: not really. we can't go on the house floor or senate floor but aside from that, the press can go most places on the hill. certainly there is decorum. the practice of the shouted question. that is their opportunity to ask. you see lots of that on the hill because there is so much availability. if you don't get a question to nancy pelosi during a press conference, you might see her on her way to the house floor. about 8:30 on the east coast, talking about a busy week ahead. plenty of callers waiting. thank you for waiting jeremy, here in d.c., a democrat. caller: thank you for taking my

call. article to bring up an in the new york times about prisons in alabama. the new york times has it that the conditions of prisons in alabama is terrible. it is filled with sexual abuse and contraband. ourst wanted to say that prison systems and justice department are so much more about punishment. relish the often thought of prisoners delivering rate, torture or death. we call ourselves a civilized democracy but the entire system of lengthy incarcerations for minor offenses is a disgrace and a shame and is designed for exploitation of the most vulnerable and poor people, just

to feed the greedy judicial law enforcement establishment. i think building bridges instead of walls is the way to go. host: the new york times editorial board taking on this topic, alabama's cruel and unusual prisons. william barr faces a test over the state's deplorable prison conditions. the attorney general is going to be on capitol hill. obviously the mueller report is likely to be a top topic. do you think this will come up? sam: i think it is likely. this situation is ripe for both republicans and democrats to have tough questions for attorney general barr. officials at doj here in washington, and officials in alabama are not disputing this is a significant and horrific problem. it could set up a next jade -- a next stage in the debate about

criminal justice reform. last year congress passed a bipartisan sentencing reform bill. i think reformers are looking at the next step, other areas. areas thatertainly need congress to step in and make improvements. host: our next caller is patty, a republican. caller: thank you. of all, i want to let you american latino from texas. i was a democrat at one time and when trump came in, i was so tired of hearing about the mother case, about the taxes. the democrats have done nothing in the last hundred days with policies to help the american

people. that is why i switched, because i did not get into politics and when they told me -- when trump came in i got into it and learned a lot of things i could not believe. host: you say you are sick of hearing about the mueller probe. are you concerned at all about the cost of the mother probe after 14 -- of the mueller probe after 14 months? the democratsd of making policies, that is what i learned. they are just always trying to and find anything on anybody instead of taking care of their own house and making policies. host: sam brodey, on that question about the cost of the mueller probe. you looked into this idea and that level of concern on capitol hill and how it has changed. up to theead

completion of robert mueller's investigation, you saw top republicans raising concerns about the amount of money that had gone into the special counsel. i followed up with a lot of top republicans after attorney general barr's summary came out and did not find a lot of republicans thought it was a priority to find out how much transparency with going toward what is going to be released, since the initial summary was seen as a pr win for the president. i doubt that republicans are going to be spending a lot of time getting to the bottom of how much mueller spent, which was in line or less than similar special counsel investigations in the past. the debate is shifting to what is going to be released and what the public is going to see. host: vivian salama, do you expect the president to weigh in on that topic or is he trying to

move past it? vivian: if i was a betting woman, i would say yes. the president has not had a lot to say about this issue. in the beginning he expects relief -- he expressed but -- relief that it is over and felt hedicated by the report but is angry and he has every reason to be angry, they say, because they call it a witch hunt and believe he was attacked by democrats over this. they believe it was an illegitimate investigation, a waste of taxpayer money. obviously in the last couple of days there has been reporting floating around that perhaps the public should not just take attorney general barr's four-page letter at face value and there may be more to the investigation. we are going to see in the coming days are going to be very telling for the molar investigation. we will see whether or not this was just a cloud over this white

house that has gone away or if there are more questions to be answered. host: our next caller is in baltimore, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am 92, a world war ii veteran and former democrat. i voted for harry truman. i last voted when i switched because both of the parties seemed atrocious. push for get some independent third-party but i don't hold my hopes too high. what i am concerned with and i would like to ask your guests, a lot of what is in the probe by in fishing and the fbi files for things they could thingsil people to say

against or in support of their feelings that have nothing to do with the russian connection. i think for that reason, these should be kept out of the public interest. i would like to hear what your reporters have to say about that. host: sam brodey, do you want to start this? sam: there are four areas that govern what could be redacted in the final report that is released. one of those categories is people who are peripheral to the investigation, not explicitly a target of mother's investigation but may have been included in their and -- in their information gathering. they cannotary

release too much information about what they looked into and -- because those people beat who were not charged would not have much opportunity to clear their names. there is a robust debate about grand jury material and what could be included but in terms of people who may have been swept up in the investigation, there is probably a strong interest from everyone involved to keep those folks private. vivian: there is a series of things that we will be wondering if we will know about. talk of classified information. sam said about the grand jury material which we do not have access to. also this issue of executive privilege, whether or not they were any conversations that fall under the category of executive privilege in which case the attorney general may consider rejecting that as well.

it is unclear -- redacting that as well. it is unclear how much we will see because there has been some push back from anonymous sources on the molar team that we don't know the full story. host: 15 or 20 minutes left in this week ahead in washington. our guests, vivian salama, wall street journal white house brodey, dailyam beast, congressional reporter there. you can give us a call and ask questions you are interested in. jeff in montgomery, alabama, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a comment. the situation with these alabama prisons does not surprise me in the least. our incarceration rates are

mind-boggling and slavery was never abolished, only shifted to prison populations that are funneling in, overly black. nice job america. are a conflation of the way we treat people as a whole. those people suffering in those prisons are our sons, daughters, fathers and mothers. your response please. host: anything more you wanted to add on that story? vivian: the administration seems genuinely committed to tackling the issue of criminal justice interesting --s interestingly one of the areas where they have gotten bipartisan support. i don't know what the outcome will be, whether or not the

long-term effects will improve. i cannot read the future. certainly it is something being talked about a lot at the white house and getting a lot of support on capitol hill. we started by talking about the secretary of homeland security resigning yesterday. tell us more about kevin micah linton and what you have done on him. vivian: he was actually on the plane with us when we were traveling to the border on friday. obviously someone who has the confidence of the president moving forward, someone who has been very influential and involved in the current border and whether or not he ends up being the right person for the job, it remains to be seen. i remember someone saying he would prefer to keep a low profile role.

he has a huge challenge with the current crisis. patrol has been stretched very thin with this border crisis that the president has been talking about weeks and a lot of people since it is a lose-lose situation for everyone at this point. obviously the president has a very particular view about what should be happening at the border. some say it is not very realistic. gowill see if he decides to for the role of full-time, if he is nominated even. host: c-span pointed out on twitter this morning, kevin mcaleenan was before congress back on december 18 of last year . here is a bit of what he had to say at that hearing. [video clip] >> the inability to keep families together while they instead proceedings,

crossing with a child is a near guarantee of a speedy release. these deficiencies ensure a high likelihood of success and the trends they invite have significant ramifications. our infrastructure is incompatible with this reality. our ports of entry were built to handle mostly male single adults in custody, not families or children. illegal crossings have a different carrier -- character families coming across in large groups and simply presenting themselves to border patrol agent's. times to are choosing allow single adults seeking to evade capture to sneak in. the smugglers convict horrible violence on some of the most vulnerable people in our hemisphere. these trends mean that regardless of whether an individual has a valid case for protection or asylum, they are increasingly unlikely to be repatriated.

only 1.5 percent of families from central america apprehended in 17 have been removed to their countries of origin despite the fact that most will not end up having valid claims to remain in the u.s. when court proceedings conclude. that presumption that our system will allow them to stay indefinitely is the driving factor for those making the journey to our border. along with important push factors which include challenging conditions in many parts of central america, this incentivizes them to put their lives in the hands of dangerous smugglers. the cost of these pull and push intors is seen every day lives lost on the journey. clearly both a border security and humanitarian crisis. host: if you want to wants that hearing in its entirety, you can do so at c-span.org.

you can see that full hearing. sam brodey, your thoughts on how congress will be dealing with mcaleenan as he steps into this acting role. sam: it will be a continuation of this lose-lose situation that secretary nielsen had found put af in, trying to public face to the position,tion's making the argument that it is -- that it is a humanitarian crisis, demanding more resources. secretary nielsen in her resignation letter basically said she did not get enough support from congress and that she hopes the next dhs secretary get support from congress to complete the mission. that is a shot across the bow. that will set up an interesting debate and dialogue between lawmakers and whoever is the

next secretary about what demanding role is in accountability and asking questions but also the money that dhs requires, particularly because democrats would not like to see another dollar go to dhs. we saw that push by progressives during the shutdown. there is going to be a lot to talk about. sam: something to keep -- vivian: something to keep in mind going forward. when the white house decided to withdraw the nomination of the candidate for the immigration and customs enforcement, the white house is increasingly monopolizing power over the immigration portfolio. you have a couple hardliners within the administration who believe very strongly in cracking down on immigration, even goinghe laws,

so far as to close the border. the department of homeland security has been out of the loop on many of these issues and going forward, it is going to be interesting to see if the white house increasingly takes over the decision-making process and how much the dhs is looped into that process. host: in one way of doing that is appointing an immigration czar. be, and wecould already had a de facto immigration czar in stephen miller. he has been very influential. i snapped a photo of him standing beside the roundtable discussion. kushner, the president's son-in-law who is going to be taking an increasingly active role on immigration. you see the white house getting increasingly involved. kelly, kristen --

kiersten nielsen's predecessor. as note -- as nielsen fell out of favor with the white house, the white house started to keep a closer hold on so many of those decisions. host: what was secretary nielsen's relationship like with stephen miller? vivian: quite contentious. not only with stephen miller but with john bolton. john bolton and john kelly had a falling out -- falling out over nielsen several months ago. it was reported there was a shouting match at the white house. andas over immigration specifically secretary nielsen's handling of the crisis. that never really went away after john kelly left his position. miller,ton and stephen now very much controlling and calling the shots on the immigration portfolio and they are right next to the president. it will be interesting to see

moving forward how much influence that will have. host: greg is a democrat from virginia. caller: good morning. i am a democrat. i am trying to stay a democrat because of environmental concerns but i have to say as i watch to see what democrats are doing. i used to live in south texas. of 20 years ago and it is a crisis now. there is nothing wrong with the people coming in, it is the fact that they don't assimilate into american culture the way that immigrants use to. host: can you define what you think assimilation should include? caller: assimilation should include a basic understanding of what it means to be a citizen of the united states, a basic understanding of how our government works and a basic understanding of the

constitution, so that they can understand that they are in a country unlike any other on the planet and those things are worth protecting. months ago on this program, we talked about a study that showed that most americans would fail a basic citizenship test. it was a state-by-state study of thousands of people that were asked citizenship test questions and most of them received a failing grade of 60% or less. what do you think? that is an unfortunate fact and has to deal with how our education system has been failing us. that does not mean we don't try to make sure people entering this country know it, regardless of whether the indigenous folks do or not. well,uld focus on that as

but that is a whole different discussion. like watching the democrats with this mother report and all of this stuff, i am not a trump fan, but i have mother report fatigue and i feel like every time i turn around, the democrats want to change the rules. they want to get rid of the electoral college and pack the supreme court. it sounds like they want to change the rules every time they lose. host: this is coleman in tulsa, oklahoma, a republican. caller: good morning. that wet interesting have had two years of investigations and it turned out to be fake news. that has beenanda put out to the public about how trump colluded with the russians has been proven fake.

i ask your reporters, aren't you curious as to how all this came about? we have been talking about the report and my greatest concern treason was an act of by officials in power and there is no discussion on that. how did all of this come about? clear, youso i am don't understand how the special counsel's investigation was started? caller: yes. policy that the fbi agent talked about. host: sam brodey? the investigation -- it is important to note that we don't know a lot about what

is in this report. i don't think either of our organizations were claiming definitively that the president colluded to a criminal degree with russia. you would find most reporters and news organizations said this was an investigation at the highest levels of the federal government. we followed it and reported it and are continuing to do so as we learn more about what robert mueller produced. i think vivian can speak better to this than i can. host: are there still calls for a second special counsel to probe the obama administration? sam: certainly lindsey graham has been saying in the last two weeks that he would like a robert mueller type figure to look into whether there was any between the clinton campaign and the fbi in order to tip the scales against president

trump. you are finding republicans on the hill continue to make that point. whether that happens we don't know but there are calls for another investigation into how this investigation began. host: vivian salama? vivian: the president reference that a lot of this was fake news as the caller mentioned and that he is vindicated by a lot of this. we don't know. we don't have the report. i understand your point about mother fatigue -- mueller fatigue. i will say that the news organizations would not invest so much time and energy into something that was not important at the very least. factave to consider the that you have the person holding the highest office in the people, and the american and a number of people wanted an explanation as to why he was

meeting with russians in his trump tower during the campaign. i am not saying that the democrats don't deserve the same level of scrutiny in their meetings but obviously it is important to hold official -- government officials accountable. that is in essence what this is about. it is not as the president likes to call it, a witchhunt. nobody has the time for something like that. news organizations are there to get answers. i assure you we are doing it out of genuine integrity to pursue the truth. host: less than five minutes left. we will try to get a few more of your calls. gary in pennsylvania, independent. caller: i just want to know why they are investigating trump so much sense obama left us hanging. i voted for ted nugent for president but first the

collusion of rush -- with russia, there was zero evidence. why did they keep investigating it? why don't they look into maxine democrats?all the i bet you they've got so much money, they've got walls around their houses. report whichmother i think you were addressing, what do you think about the 34 individuals and three companies that were eventually charged with crimes by the mother investigate -- by the mueller investigative team? he did not catch up with trump. he turned it over. i don't think he should have turned it over to the rest of the world to say he is the only guilty person in the world.

if we look into maxine waters and everyone else, we would find the same thing. they are ripping off the country. illinois, is don in democrat. caller: listening to some of these callers on the republican side and some of these fake democrats calling in on the democrat line and say they are democrats but they are really republicans, they have their heads in the sand. for the mueller report, let's say they wash it up a little bit for the public to see, protect some people's privacy or whatever, but congress and the house should be able to see the full report to see if he did anything wrong that they could call for impeachment. lost my thought

there. host: you gave us enough to go on. we have covered a lot of tonics -- topics. vivian salama, what will you be watching for? vivian: we have the president coming up tomorrow. we also have the president of south korea. that will be a very important meeting to keep an eye on because south korea has a lot invested in the president's talks with north korea. that will be interesting. we are still holding our breath to see if the president comes up with a china trade deal. sam brodey, on the other end of pennsylvania avenue. what are you watching? one of the things about attorney general barr's

appearances is that the justice department expanded an existing lawsuit against the affordable care act, hoping to strike down the entire law, a renewed health care kerfuffle that sent capitol scrambling. they will want to know from the attorney general why his department made that decision, how it was made and what is going to happen if they are challenge -- if there challenge r challenge if thei succeeds. host: sam brodey is a congressional reporter for the daily beast. vivian salama with the wall street journal, white house reporter. thank you so much for your time. up next on the washington journal, it is our weekly your money segment. we will be joined by the government accountability office's charles jeszeck, looking at how americans are doing when it comes to saving for retirement. we will be right back. ♪

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have left behind. published by public affairs, c-span's the presidents will be on shelves april 23, but you can preorder your copy in the hardcover or e-book today at www.c-span.org/thepresidents or wherever books are sold. announcer: this week on the communicators. technology watcher tim wu talks about his book. >> this book is the poster child theye curse of bigness, got extremely large, they only cared about money and growth, they did not take their position responsibly and ended up being hacked. instagram, which the controlled during the 2016 election. they kind of had this terrible effect on what passes as news. the show still affects and political effects of facebook are enormous. announcer: tonight on c-span 2.

washington journal continues. money"n our weekly "your segment, the topic of retirement in retirement savings. our guest serves as the director for income security and other issues of the government accountability office. new team recently put out a report looking at how americans are doing when it comes to saving for retirement. what did you find? >first of all, it's great to be here. guest: this is an update of ,eport we did several years ago and we found that basically, things have not changed. basically, that's not really great news because we found that for households age 55 and over, considerable numbers of them really don't have a lot of resources for retirement. 29% have nor, retirement savings and no defined benefit plan or traditional pension. that is cause for concern given

that if you are over age 55, you don't have a lot of years to get ready for retirement. segment, separate phone lines, we are splitting them up by those who are working , (202) 748-8000. and those who have retired, (202) 748-8001. define an american household. guest: they may be related or unrelated individuals under the same roof. it's a pretty standard definition by bls and the major collectors. host: why do it that way rather than every individual and try to break up the data? guest: one could look at individuals but, ultimately, we felt that households are a more relevant unit to look at because

it gives you a more accurate perspective of the resources that people can draw upon. as they age. report, therom the percentage of households in 2016 that had no retirement savings, create percent. int compares in 2016 to 52% 2013. 29% of american households had no retirement savings and no defined benefit plan. had a defined benefit plan, but no retirements living. among those households who do have savings, do we know how much they're saving, how well-prepared they are? guest: it was simply an update of some past work. we did not look at the median account balances. but a lot of research has been done recently, we don't have the numbers here. they are not that high. even if you have $100,000 going wantedtirement, if you

annuity with that, it's going to be maybe a couple hundred dollars a month, so it's really not a lot of money. in the past, we found that a lot of people had no retirement savings at all, and by that, we mean savings either in world one k -- in 401k. they may have a defined benefit plan, but those tensions increasingly are disappearing in the private sector in the united states. there is some cause for concern. seen what sectors have workers lose pensions, or where are they being offered less? guest: throughout the private sector. there are more and more employers not offering traditional pension. the public sector, they are still pretty common. a number of them are under financial stress, but in the

private sector they have been rapidly disappearing. in many cases, they are replaced by 401k plans. people still have the opportunity to say with those traditional pensions that they receive annuity for the remainder of your life. they are just really out of favor among employees. host: the report we are talking about, most households approaching retirement have low savings and update to the 2016 numbers the last time they did this report in 2013. you just explain how this report came about. guest: as you know, the government accountability office where the investigative -- we are the investigative arm of the u.s. congress. we are required by law if we get toequest for information respond to those requests for information. we received this request from senator sanders, who was the

ranking minority member for the senate budget committee. updates for previous work he had done in 2015. host: is there some bright news in this report? 48% of american households had no retirement savings, but that is down from 52% in 2013. guest: you could look at it that way. somewhat, but they really have not changed that much. there are some opportunities now. both the house and the senate are looking at some pieces of legislation that they think will encourage the formation of new pension plans. other things will make it easier for americans to save for retirement. host: we split our phone lines up a little differently in this segment. (202) 748-8000 if you are working. (202) 748-8001 if you are retired. let us know how you are saving for retirement. we want to hear your stories in this segment of washington journal.

chadwick is up first in denver, colorado. retired. know, i thought the private sector would handle this a lot better. why is part of the reason 39% are not able to retire. because they are not managing their money correctly. socialism to a lot of because it's a bigger problem than the information states because medicare and medicaid are basically hedge funds or retirement accounts because we don't have enough work in this country. at setting a retirement account, so this is definitely a situation where there needs to be a market correction. more and more private involvement, more education in private sector on retirement, it

would be better for this country in the future and more productive. it's time for this country to get more responsible. why is part of the reason retired from the military. i worked hard and i was rewarded for it. this is how it works and we get -- we need to get back to the principles of working hard and being conservatives, so we all can retire one day. host: how long were you in the military? caller: 40 years, i served from 2000 2005. know,for those who don't can you explain what retirement benefits are that come with that service? caller: yeah. basically, my dad served, he retired after 20 years and the type of retirement i have, it's a medical retirement. oif and in the

veterans isack, like a neglected tax code. you get compensation and pension. if you get hurt at work. there's a lot of opportunities. you can retire after 15 years and you can buy time. my retirement was due to medical, and i know a lot of people are there. i mean, starting working from that age, it would be kind of sad not to have something to show for it. host: thanks for sharing your story. guest: first of all, thank you for your service. i think one of the issues that a lot of people in congress are concerned about in their

retirement communities in general are how to encourage more employers in the private sector to offer plans. there is legislation now to make it easier for private companies to offer those plans, and you are right to, just offering a plan is not enough. you need to get individuals to actively contribute and save for retirement. regarding some of the government programs, you raise an important point. a number of the programs in social security and down the road are facing financial challenges by 2035. social security will be only able to pay about three quarters of its promised benefits and congress is looking at bills to restore the solvency and integrity of social security programs. you are right that a lot of it today, it really is incumbent upon individuals and for employers to give workers the opportunity to save for retirement and for individuals to take advantage of that opportunity. host: illinois, kyle is in the

workforce. go ahead. guest: -- caller: i have a question. i have watched the show and i have seen a friend of mine in card, ithis medical was a bad show in the justice system. i watched my grandmother of 96 he tortured and murdered by a morgan county justice system where the lawyers made money. is, we are trying to make a living. it seems like, to me, the government, you retire and the government takes money from the retirement that you've already paid taxes on. i mean, the price of living does not go down. always getychecks taken more and more from the electrical, from anything.

numbers, i can make them out. old, i've never voted, i finally registered to what myause i have seen country is becoming and i'm scared. host: kyl in illinois. one of the topics he brings up is how far retirement savings can go today, and how you plan for that. can you speak to that? guest: there are some real challenges here. we know that while wages have not been growing for the past 20 years, there has been a lot of stagnation in that regard, they have gone off somewhat recently, but there's a lot of demand on people's income. people have to pay for their children, they have to pay for housing, and basically what remains is there often is not a lot to save for retirement.

this is a real challenge, something that we have to take a look at. health care continues to be one of the really big areas where a health shock can knock a family, really put them at risk for losing everything. often, we have done some work in the past looking at hardship, a family illness, andajor they have to take money out of their 401(k) to pay the doctors. you are absolutely right. there is a lot of stress here, and it is very difficult for a lot of families to save for retirement. host: what is phased retirement? guest: it is a little different. when you hear america is aging like the rest of the world, for example, we have over 10,000 baby boomers each day going into retirement. companies areis

losing a lot of skilled employees, and one of employees with two shall knowledge, they are losing their best welder or their last programmer. retirement is an idea to encourage those workers to stay on for a little bit longer, and it also includes a mentoring or a knowledge sharing component that the worker will work with the more jr. workers, share with them the information, specialized information that they have built up over the will, so that the company continue to be productive in the future. host: are these legislative efforts to encourage them to stay in the workforce longer? guest: in the united states, they really aren't legislative. they have been in some industries around the country, they have been very popular in academia for many years although, in many cases, they have really been trying to get workers to leave early rather than to keep them longer.

in 2016,federal level a regulation was passed that all federal agencies have to create a phased retirement program for their employees, so at the federal level, they are really looking at this and depending on the lessons learned at the federal level, it could offer important implications to the private sector. host: back to illinois, phil is waiting. caller: good morning. i have a question about the number of people that have savings for retirement. is, are theseon people that can afford to have savings for retirement? because, if you look at the , don't quite a few people, maybe 50%, pay little or no taxes? it's not surprising that people don't have retirement savings. well, first, it is true

that it is hard to save for a lot of these people. what happens very often, they may be contributing to their plans, but they may have credit card debt, they may have other expenses outside, so they may have money in their account. and also build up this debt what happened later on, you will have a hardship or that money will come out. regarding taxes, absolutely. taxes are an issue. maybe not the income tax for many people, but certainly payroll taxes. a really important aspect of i think more than the tax burden, is the fact that we have not seen a lot of wage growth over the last 20 years. and so, that is changing a little bit now. that is really problematic for pie that have a larger they can divide the slices up

among the different needs that they may have. host: coming back for the latest 48% of american households have no retirement savings but included in that area percent could be households that have a defined benefit. but no savings. some criticism of that from the american enterprise institute, andrew biggs wrote excluding traditional pensions from retirement savings, he said i can't see why the headline number would categorize this, most of whom are public-sector employees with generous rs,sions, as non--save especially when that limited definition has already caused confusion. if you look further down on the table, found that there's a number of people who have no retirement savings and no defined benefit plan. i think that's 29%. host: the same as 2013. guest: that's correct.

readinga more careful of the paper will show that the number is included. table, i think it's fairly self-explanatory. we are not an organization, we try to be as protective as possible. recent research has come out and talk about the data set that we use in consumer finances, it really tracks quite well with administrative data. we feel comfortable about these numbers. host: by the way, 26% of american households in 2016 had both retirement savings and a defined benefit plan. that is the table but he was just referring to on your screen. back to your phone calls, patricia is in milwaukee, wisconsin, retired. good morning, i'm weired and i believe that

are being handed a lot of smoke and mirrors by our own government. really, there is less taxes being paid then in the 1970's by the very wealthy in this country. some corporations have paid zero taxes in 2017 because of an unfair tax system, and i do not understand why we gave the ultrarich $1 trillion in tax cuts. that makes no sense. if you think that people could save when the cost of living keeps going up since the 70's i can understand why our young people cannot i a home, cannot save money, and second of all, pensions have come from unions, strong unions, the been busted very

effectively. how can you save money? guest: first, i wanted to say, we didn't look into the issues around taxation and the relative taxation of people by income. that clearly is a very important issue, something that continues to be debated very closely in the congress. it's likely to be an important issue in the upcoming presidential election, so certainly that is something that people are going to continue to look at closely. andrding the pensions unionization, unionization has really gone down in recent years, particularly now. there are certain kinds of example, the central state pension fund which is facing some severe financial

challenges and will likely by 2025, 1 ofnt thousands of people at risk of losing the bulk of their pensions. you touch upon an issue that is a big problem. congress is looking at this, hopefully there will be some resolution to protect people's pensions, but it is an important issue. at anand we are looking update to a gao study on american households. our guest works on education workforce and income security the government accountability office. the report that we are looking at today, you can find on the gov website where all of their reports are. to john in brooklyn, working, go ahead. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. a question i have is the product available

for retirement. ira, and trying to funds the stock or bond or mutual funds can be very complicated. to make the right selection without having to go through a lot of different experts, when you do reach 60's and 70's, you will have the right amount of money available to live from. my question is the selection of the products, my other question is, why is this not being taught in the jr. and senior years of high school throughout the country, so young people have an early start in understanding the process? make it mandatory in the school system. thank you so much for taking my call. you touch upon a very important issue. plans, yout-based can have a benefit, and adequate

but it in retirement, puts a lot more of the responsibility on individual employees. not only does a worker have to contribute, make sure that they contribute an adequate amount of money, but they have to invest it. issue,really complicated even for people who have a lot of financial knowledge to know what funding to put their money in, how to invest. and over time, figure out when they switch a job, what should they do? should they take the money with them, should they cash out? and finally, even when they retire, how do you spend that money? be spent 40 years building that, how do you spend it down? would you do? the issue that you touch upon with financial funding, a lot of people are looking at targets, they find the next option. it's really a complicated issue. i think the solution that you touch upon is growing financial

literacy in this country is an important one. schools really have to take a look down the road at providing that will helpn students become financially literate. particularly with the retirement system and all the other things in the world today, interest rates for buying a home. the world is a coveted place and students really need to learn financial knowledge and how to think about these financial issues earlier in their lives. host: in terms of products being offered by companies, what is a 403b? guest: it is like a 401(k) but typically for public employees. it operates similarly. may themoney in, there money from the employer or something, and you save money for retirement.

it's just a different part of the tax codes. liz isew jersey is next, retired. caller: good morning. i retired about four years ago and before that, like 20 years before that, i made my last move place about age 46 and part of my moving was to check the benefit package and make sure that i was getting an upgrade and benefits including retirement. lot of times people get into a job that is offering them very little to nothing in the way of better. or you get comfortable whatever, you are just slogging along. to always keep foremost in your brain that there's going to be a day that you say i will never be able to retire, that you will retire. healthl be retired, your will give out, something will happen.

and i think you have to take that into account when you judge becauseu want to work, your pension, if it does come from your employer, you are lucky. if it doesn't, you have to provide it. and you can't provided after age 50, you have to be doing this especially life, those folks out there like myself who are single, there is no spousal ira for you. there's limits on what you can put into the ira as far as income that restrictive than married folks. any of want to know if those could be addressed, because more and more people are entering retirement single, not as a married couple. host: thanks for the call. a veryyou touch upon important issue which is something that we have had some discussions with staff in the

congress, it's an issue that we likely will be doing some work on, doing a report on that in the future. it is a real problem. we talked about financial literacy. certainly, if you are a single person, it's really important that as you mentioned, to look at the total compensation passage you may receive, to be knowledgeable about it, and to take advantage of things like if with a match,k take full advantage to the extent that you can. putting in as much money as you can afford, because you are right, saving for retirement is really important. you will have social security and while social security is facing some challenges right now, i'm personally optimistic it will be around. social security for a lot of people does not give you that much money.

it is really important, as you be aware, take that into account when you're looking for work. now is a really strong labor market, the best we have had in a generation. , look atnto account apple benefits package you are being offered, and make some decisions in response. on twitter right that the earlier you retire in most cases, it does not end up well. this is why she says uc retirees going back to work. the number ofto people coming out of retirement to go back into the workforce? some work one done looking at older workers in the labor market and the labor market for older workers is often problematic. while older workers are less likely to be laid off, if an older worker is laid off, it generally that they are unemployed for a much longer time and when they are reemployed, they also often get

a lower rate. if a problem. even with the strong labor market today, there have been some articles, anecdotes about how older workers are continuing to have some difficulties in the labor market. host: why is there an age cap for contributing to individual retirement accounts? guest: that something congress is now looking to raise. at age cap i believe is 70.5, and the idea was in the past, at some point start taking theyoney out because thought there was a tax benefit for retirement, the money should be used for retirement and not some way to be transferred across generations. given the fact that people are living significantly longer today, there are proposals in congress to raise that to 72. again, the argument being that you want people who have been

saving for retirement, use the money in retirement, and not simply pass it along to their children. phil in florida, retired. caller: how are you doing? host: i'm well, go ahead. caller: i love c-span. i am retired. between my social security check nonservice connected pension i make $1100 a month. lyndont true that johnson was the first one to start raiding the social security trust fund and they have been doing it ever since? and if they had not done that, it would be a lot more money in their now than there is. and i also hear that the is up for allege vote again to see if they want to get rid of it, which i think

they should. , you tuned into this program last week, we took up the electoral college topic. but we will stay on retirement issues with the gao on the social security trust fund. basically, the issue of the social security trust fund, what has happened over the years is that there has been a transfer of money from social security to other parts of the government, they have basically replaced it with an iou. time, what is going to happen at some point, as the amount of money in social security is reduced to make payments, those will be cashed in from other parts of the government, so it's going to inically -- it will result basically increasing the deficit. the main issue here is that the

reason why social security is facing challenges that americans are getting older, you do have the baby boomers retiring. it was a good thing, and a lot of people coming out right now, but the greater problem facing social security is that people are living a lot longer today. years inend more retirement and so those shortfalls have to be made up. host: michigan is next, paul, retired. caller: good morning. wages areabout how wagesng to increase, yet have been stagnant for the last 20 to 25 years. increasing,y are aren't they really starting a wage of 20, 25 years ago? aren't they kind of starting weight behind to catch up to

what they were from back then? guest: wages have been fairly stagnant for most of those years, but the good news is that you do have wage increases now. it's still pretty moderate, you don't see any real increase price inflation or anything, but you do see wages increasing right now, and i think that is helping. the optimistic view is that is helping families recoup some of the fact that they really have not been doing all that well in the past decades. host: ray is in virginia, retired. caller: i have four quick points. one, it should be mandatory for every state to have a graduation requirement of one year of financial literacy. two, i think the rmd should be done away with. shouldi think that ra's

look at people other than those that have more than six figure incomes to invest. there is very real age discrimination when you come to employment for seniors. thank you so much for listening. guest: thank you. you point out a lot of important issues, financial literacy continues to be something that gao, we are very invested in. the general who heads gao has been personally championing financial literacy. we think that there are some issues, some real issues that are going to have to be explored in the labor market for older americans and older workers. for: team director education workforce and income security issues of the government account ability office. we do appreciate your time. thanks so much for stopping by. guest: my pleasure. to continue going

this discussion about retirement savings. our question as we and the program, are you prepared for retirement? continue to call in. under 30, (202) 748-8000. 30 to 50, (202) 748-8001. if you are 50 and older, (202) 748-8002. we want to continue to hear your stories until i program ends at 10:00 today. we also want to show you one of the issues we are talking about in the last segment legislation to possibly change some of the laws affecting retirements and retirement savings. this is from the wall street journal last week. the senate introducing legislation to overhaul the u.s. retirement system, a sign that efforts to read and savings plans are gaining traction. the move comes shortly after the house of representatives on friday introduced its own legislation about the u.s. retirement system. and with faye the bill could be passed by congress and signed

into law this year. cap forg the age traditional, individual retirement accounts is currently 70.5. also make itould easier for small companies to offer world one k plans and for certain employers to 401katically increase the plans. changes being the most significant since 2000 six when congress made it easier for employers to enroll workers automatically and invest their money and funding that should be focused from stocks to bonds as people age. that is from the wall street journal this morning. in this segment of the washington journal, until we end our program today, we just want to hear from you. are you prepared for retirement? again, under 30, (202) 748-8000. 30 to 50 years old, (202) 748-8001. and if you are 50 or older,

(202) 748-8002. we will get out of here at 10:00 as usual for the washington journal, but the house is not in today until noon and the senate comes in at 4 p.m. this afternoon, that is the schedule on capitol hill. for now, talking about savings for retirement. john is in california on the line for those between 30 to 50 years old. oh, i am over 70. host: that's ok, go ahead. talk to me about how you have saved or are saving. iller: i have saved and taught my children how to save and they are doing quite well, even though they are in their 40's and 50's. i think it's very much in the home. it's very important to teach your children how to a to prepare for retirement.

for instance, you get a raise, you cut your raise in half. half goes to retirement, half goes to your own budget. maintain a minimum budget. uncomfortable, i'm not wealthy. for, i have is paid a comfortable income coming in. even with inflation, i have that taken care of. thing is that you have to teach the children how to save. host: when did you have that conversation with your children? when do you think children are receptive to that? when they take their first jobs? college, in their 30's? conversation that from kindergarten. i gave them a piggy bank and i explained to them what the value of a dollar -- not to be greedy, but at the same time, that you start at the very beginning.

they were 12 when years old, they went and they had a savings of area i taught them how to save in the account, , forenever they received instance, one of them had a , i would split the money, i said this goes to savings and you can play with this. and they learned to budget at a very early age. host: how many children? caller: i have three. host: and how are they doing, are they on track for retirement? caller: i would think so. he has threen, jobs unfortunately because of the profession that he wanted. it's in the animal husbandry profession, but he definitely still is putting in money for retirement because he sees surrounding people, and i point them out. look at this, look at this, this individual did not save. because they come up and he says

well, so and so has a really nice truck and i say, is it necessary? those are the things that you have to work with. host: the teaching continues, even as they get older? caller: excuse me? host: the teaching continues as they get older? caller: i press it less and less, but now it is sort of turning around. they are telling me what they are doing. host: have you learned anything from them? caller: oh, yes. learning how to save. the frugal. be frugal. use coupons in the newspaper. it's necessary. it is the family. orfind a lot of children ar today, they complain about not having money but yet they have a cell phone that costs $150 per month.

and then they have the cable television with all of the the same time,t instead of just getting the basic. those are little things, but every penny -- a penny saved is a penny earned. host: thanks for calling this morning. from pennsylvania, balloon for those 50 and over -- the line for those 50 and older. caller: thanks for taking my call. i have to agree with the gentleman who just was on the air, he's absolutely right. you have to teach them the basics to your children and start with the parents, not the educational system. the educational system in many ways is failing. a contradiction in terms, the government accounting office, let's put it this way. it's actually the

government accountability office. caller: ok. anyway. your income becomes your downfall. it's impossible to save. it's not impossible, but if you make $100,000 per year, and they are going to give free education to someone who makes $100,000 per year or less, that is not helping anybody. over $100,000, we'll give you $50,000 per year. i never made over $20,000 per year in my life. my children are well-qualified, educated children and they know how to change a tire, balance a check book, to the thing that are necessary. they can repair their own cars. kids today,lot of they don't pay $3000 for a phone. they don't pay 85 to $100 for cable. host: do you think they are

going to retire comfortably? caller: no, they will not. i have no retirement. i have been a paramedic for 30 years and i have no income. ateft my job due to injury 45, i was making $9.75 per hour. and there is just no way you can save. with the amount of people who have money that does not help out the government or anybody impossible for the working poor and the poor to do anything but survive. host: thanks for the call. here are the numbers again from that chart and last segment. the government accountability office, finding in 2016 that 48% of american households have no retirement savings. a definedou have

benefit plan, but no actual savings in the account, 29% of american households have neither any retirement savings for a defined benefit plan. last fall, we were joined by robert lawless, a university of illinois professor and participant in the consumer bankruptcy project. he talked about his research on bankruptcy rates among those 55 and older in this country, this is what he had to say. we ask people why they filed bankruptcy, people over the age of 65 will tell us that they have a lot of medical debt, a lot of bankruptcy filers have that. whicho see income decline is not surprising. that is pretty characteristic of anyone who filed bankruptcy. one thing that really stands out the over 65 population is about a third of us say that one of the reasons we file bankruptcy is that we try to

help out a family member or close friend financially. number, is a fairly big about a third. that is different than what we see in the under 65 population with bankruptcy filers. thinking about how that fits into broader trends and other research about what has been called the retirement crisis in america, i think our paper fits very well with the net broader research about shifting of risk and the visuals, people have more health risks nowadays. there's more out-of-pocket costs associated with health care. financial security with retirement. what we see in our paper, the roots of it are being set long before people get to retirement and and then they arrived they are just one financial host: problem away from bankruptcy. that was robert lawless.

if you want to watch the entire segment, you can do so on our website, easy enough to find in the search bar. you can just search robert lawless and you will find that segment. mean while in this segment, until our program ends at 10:00, are you prepared for retirement? 30 -- under 30 years old, (202) 748-8000. 30 to 50, (202) 748-8001. and if you are 50 or older, (202) 748-8002. waiting, florida, go ahead. good morning, i appreciated at listening to some of the other seniors. some of those who were born in the depression era, in my own case, my parents came from germany, one from ireland, and it was very difficult growing up under those circumstances. and then, as i went on in life

and became educated. but, to actually save a great deal of money for retirement with medical expenses and so forth, maybe one spouse being very ill, it was not always that easy. one of the gentleman who called earlier, everything sounded so ideal. life is not quite that way. one hopes that social security remains solvent and that we can receive that because many of us depend on that and we hope to but her savings continue, everything is not quite as ideal as some would make it seem. i appreciate the opportunity just to have something to say in this particular segment. security, howl much the you rely on social security? how would you describe your level of reliance on that? caller: i think it's an

important part of my monthly income, because quite honestly, widowed, it has become even more necessary since i did not have a pension to rely on. and i have savings, and that is very help you. together with social security, i'm able to live a fairly good life. decent life. but i would say that it's certainly necessary to have that social insecurity, because they are always threatening to do something about it and take it away. so, things are not quite as ideal. there are a lot of women who are probably very fearful of their future as we age. i don't know how much i have contributed here. host: before you go, when it

comes to social security, is that, when you had to the voting booth, is that the top issue for you, or a top issue for you? caller: oh, of course. for some the top issue a us who are older to have strong president in place who will not allow all kinds of other people who we really wish nothing but the best for to come and usurp our funding. because we will end up not being as well be we think we are as a country. there are many things, aren't there? we are just very grateful that we live in this wonderful country and we hope it remains that way, but we really rely on having everyone else in the world rely on our finances. i think i'm talking too much, but thank you so much. host: not at all, thanks for the call. carolina, between 30 and 50 years old. caller: yes, i just get tired of

people, especially the older people who have had the opportunity in their life to have worked for a company that gives them pensions and be able to put in a 401(k) and also social security. and when they retire, they are able to get all three. and someone my age, where our wages have been stagnant or 20 plus years, and we fight to survive in this environment where the housing prices keep going up, education prices keep going up. everything keeps going up but our wages. and we sit here and go, you want retirement, when we are just fighting to survive? host: what kind of work do you do? caller: i do security work. state ports,l and

doing security work. host: are you able to put anything away right now? caller: no, no. when i was in my 20's, it was the best time to put stuff away because i worked for a city and they had a pension plan. and a 401(k). go from there, and i had to use my 401(k) over the when certain things arrived, like divorce and stuff, and i'm a single parent. i have a daughter who is 14 and i looked at her and i go, i don't know where this country is going. i really don't. that's all i wanted to say. host: john is next in connecticut on the line for those between 50 and older. go ahead. caller: good morning, it's a

very interesting subject you got today. you talked earlier about the republican plans to change the 401(k) system in a couple of different ways, which i'm not sure that i understand. host: to be clear, it's a bipartisan plan at this point, introduced in the senate by chuck grassley, the finance committee chairman, a republican, join with senator ron wyden to introduce that piece of legislation. it has been introduced in the house and a slightly different form as well. some of the points of the plan, it would repeal the age cap of to contribute into ira, make it easier for small companies to offer or a one k plans, allow certain employers to automatically interviews contribution to 401k, and style plans -- fire plans to offer annuities and require employers ofdisclose how many months

income the balance could support so that some of the details -- it is bipartisan. go ahead. caller: i'm a son of irish immigrants and i spent a lot of time working in my life. i'm fortunate enough to have a benefits and most studies do indicate that the defined-benefit is a better definedand again, the benefit employer money, for the most part and the world one k is the employee money. -- and the 401k is the employee money. ring,st offering, i would is returning for the plant that all possible. thank you very much. from connecticut, part of that 26% of american that have both retirement savings and a defined-benefit plan.

some 20% of american households have a defined-benefit plan, but no retirement ratings. 29% have neither. we are asking you how you are saving for retirement. are you prepared for retirement? time for a few more phone calls today. we go to tennessee. timothy is on that line for those 50 and older. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. say that i do agree with a lot of what everyone is talking about and my job as a professional tax preparer, i have seen these numbers of people working don't have no retirement, don't have pensions, no 401(k). when you ask them what they plan on doing, people say i'm going to die. in many, many years, i have had teenagers come in and i say if you just put $25 per month to , that'snt or something

just a marginal interest rate, of 5% to 7% compounded, you will end up at 65 with money to draw from. and they look at you like sheep, like they have never been told that. man who saysthe you need to know what the guy you of a dollar is from a very young age. have anye any those -- of those young people ever taking you up on that? while, ivery once in a would say maybe two have ever come back and told me how much they think the information that i gave them, they started doing that. nowadays, people have to move jobs. you will never work a 30 year career. my advice has always been to contribute because you have control over them, whereas if

you work six or seven jobs, you could take a 401(k), it has been nor will you be able to remember where to get them. least don't contribute at more than the $5,000 that the government allows, you have to do your own ira. the company that offers 401(k) does not allow you, the but you can see what he invested his money in and do it in the ira. host: before you go, how does a professional tax preparer prepare for retirement? when are you going to be able to retire and are you going to be able to live comfortably? caller:-contributing to my ira for the last 15 to 20 years.

got three of them. at the end, when it comes time for tax season, the only thing you can do is contribute to the ira. if you can contribute to the previous season. calculations for anything that will benefit me and i will write a check for whatever amount i have interviewed per month. that is the thing, it don't take much. i could say $65 a month and at the end if i wanted to put $1000 i'm not writing a $2000 or $3000 check, i'm just writing a 500 dollars to $600 check. and that makes it a lot easier to prepare. the one thing i want everyone to know, the magic number is $100,000.

the sooner you can start it, the better off you will be. host: thanks for the call. but we end it there, will be back tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. eastern, 4 am pacific. in the meantime, have a great monday. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] senator tim scott of south carolina trying out a new way of getting around yesterday. got some of his trip on video

and shared it on twitter. elsewhere on capitol hill, this is the last week of work before lawmakers leave for spring recess. the house will debate a bill to restore net neutrality standards that were in place before the fcc decision last june. members may consider a two-year federal budget setting discretionary spending limits. the senate will spend much of the week on a nominations. majority leader filed motions to limit debate on six nominations including john abizaid to be u.s. ambassador to saudi arabia. the senate in at 4:00 eastern for general speeches on c-span2. to can watch the house and this intocspan.org or congressional debate on c-span3 radio app. president trump spoke at the republican jewish coalition spring leadership meeting in las vegas over the weekend. he talked about immigration la